CMS: Nursing homes to install smoke detectors.

CENTERS for Medicare & Medicaid Services (U.S.); NURSING care facilities; LONG-term care facilities; MEDICAL care; FIRE detectors

The article focuses on a proposal by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that nursing homes that do not have sprinkler systems or hard-wired smoke detectors install battery-operated detectors in patient rooms and public areas. The CMS interim final rule also allows nursing homes, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, and other health care facilities to install dispensers of alcohol-based hand sanitizers in exit corridors. Research has shown that the fire hazard would be greatly reduced if the dispensers are not near a heat or an ignition source.